If anyone is interested, I created paper maps that can be printed using USGS 30x60 minute series maps and the provided gpx file.

Unfortunately, I used 11x17 paper for five of the seven sheets, so it's about $10 to print in color at a FedEx Office / Kinko's, and possibly less at a local copy shop.

Some notes are on sheet 1. Print "actual size" from Acrobat.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByT47rdvlO-lbnNaalliR3J6Ym8

The link is a folder with seven PDF files. (I thought it was a zip file with seven PDFs in it.)

They were giving my computer some trouble last night, especially if you zoom in. I've got 6GB of RAM, and that's not quite enough. But you should be able to put them on a stick and have a local copy shop print them.

Use at your own risk, etc., etc.

{edit---some more details}
It's so many sheets because I haven't been able to get rid of the map borders. So sheet 1 and 2 look the same, but the maps are rearranged so the Sacramento map is on top in Sheet 1, and the Placerville map is on top in Sheet 2. This same thing happens on sheets 5 and 6, which are the east side of Lake Tahoe. The difference is in the white border area. You should be able to find the track over a map in all track locations with the combination of all of these sheets.

Normally removing those borders is a fairly trivial clipping operation, but it just won't work for me. I'm gonna try a computer with a lot of RAM to see if that makes a difference.

The USGS maps are scanned at a resolution that's just a bit below ideal. These would look a lot better if the map resolution was a touch higher. They're not 24K Quads, so you don't have to change maps all the time.

The scale is 1:100,000, or 1cm = 1km. 1.6cm ~ 1 mile.

There is a fine-line UTM grid that makes 10cm squares on the maps. This is a 10km UTM grid, which is about 6.2 miles. If you measure that grid and it's 10cm, the map is printed at 1:100,000, if you want to verify that.

I used a NOAA declination app to look up the current declination in the middle of the gpx track area. It's ~13.50 degrees. If true north is straight-up 12 O'clock, magnetic north is just under half-way to 1 O'clock. (When the maps were made it was 17-18 degrees.)

This was all done in QGIS (a free, open-source GIS program), with map TIFFs from NOAA/USGS's TopoView website, and the route GPX. I will say the projections and printing operations (using Print Composer in QGIS) were a bit detailed. (I'm not a GIS professional.)

I made the track in Magenta, 1mm wide, and ~50% transparent so you can see map details under it. If anyone has colorblindness issues and can't see that, please let me know. I might not be able to fix it for this, but in the future, I can choose a better color.

Finally, a real map/GPS nerd comment: These older USGS maps use NAD27, not WGS84. I don't like changing my GPS to NAD27, so I just leave it on WGS84. The error is something like 13m in one direction, and 60-90m in another, which is less than 1mm on this map, so it's really negligible, and I can't think of any reason why you'd use this map in that way.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Check out hobby shops that specialize in radio control planes and quadcopters.

One of my local shops also does mail order. Here are the Carbon Tubes that are hollow. There is also options for solid. Pull down the arrow selectors to see the different sizes (OD/ID).

http://www.radicalrc.com/category/Carbon-Rod-Hollow-410

Matthew
Cincinnati

Looks like hot weather coming in the south. Up to 120F (49C) in Phoenix predicted.

https://twitter.com/ryanmaue/status/742350134051254272

What kind of fork was Seb Dunne using? Steel or carbon?

Photo from Ovando (previously posted by Angler):

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=11521.0;attach=6212;image

I too am looking forward to the Ladies and especially Tracy.  It was Tracy that inspired Ovando to become more cycle friendly several years ago.  I don't think she knows what a "mini-monster" she created.

This sounds interesting. What is the story?

The long answer: All Trackleaders live systems are coded with a 'route factor'. This is a number slightly greater than 1 that is manipulated to arrive at a more accurate distance figure of a course than what is reflected in the red line on the map. It's supposed to account for all the little bends on a trail. In the case of TD, there is indeed a highly accurate GPX track coded in 'underneath' the red line seen on the map. I can't recall what that accurate distance is... i want to say 2710 or something like that. Anyway, the TD route as it is raced is not quite 2745 b/c of the legal Alts in NM being slight less than the main route. I just looked at the route factor setting, and it was set at our standard 1.073, which is high for the level of accuracy of the GPX 'underneath'. It was giving us inflated mileage. I ramped the factor down to 1.023, and we'll see how that looks when jefe reaches the finish. If it's still too high I'll lower it again.

Matthew---When you finalize the numbers, can you post the before and after route factors? I've been keeping a spreadsheet and it's gonna be way off with the change mid-course. Alternately, you could wait until next year to change it. It only matters, probably, for people keeping spreadsheets or handwritten data, so...I'm probably in the minority. No biggie either way.

Yorktown!

hypothermia--

Seems like a good number of riders were/are battling this. As a potential 2015 racer, I'm VERY curious how to avoid it, or to deal with it once it's begun. All advice would be appreciated! Thanks!!

I've been pretty surprised at the number of hypothermic riders this year. I don't know if it has been common in the past and we just didn't hear about it, or if this year is unusual and there really are more this year.

I do mostly short winter events where I can underdress and just warm up afterwards. But I'm usually outside for 6-8 hours every weekend in the winter, mostly sitting and standing, and I've got some strong beliefs about keeping warm.

1. Drink warm fluids. I think this is more important than any other thing. I can't tell you how many cold drinks I've drunk without realizing that **If you're kinda cold anyway, drinking a cold drink makes you really cold**. I finally figured it out, and it needs to be shouted from rooftops. If you're feeling okay and you drink something cold, it can put you over the edge. I really question the decision to not have any stove, even a tablet stove (e.g., Esbit) or an alcohol stove (e.g., pop can / Trangia) to just boil a cup of water for tea, coffee, ramen (even just the flavor packet), or even a bouillon cube. If you're desperate, just drink the hot water. It doesn't need to be boiling. Hot enough to drink fast. One of the small propane/butane stoves might actually be the fastest way to stop, heat water, and be back on the bike. Definitely worth experimenting. When you lean over a stove in the cold, and it lights, there is a blast of heat that hits your face. Sure you can catch yourself on fire. But if everything is wet, it's pretty hard.

2. The 99% percentile worst thing is rain near freezing. If you are packing light, you're basically screwed. There just isn't a lot that can keep you warm if everything is wet and you've only got a thin layer of insulation. (I do think the worst thing, the 99-100% worst thing is just extreme bitter cold, like a polar vortex from last winter.) Your only hope is drinking enough warm fluids or starting a fire.

3. Fleece under a shell. I'm not so certain about this one. I don't trust down if I know it could get wet (but it's so nice in camp). When I'm out at 32F and it's raining, I wear fleece with or without a shell. The shell really helps if you're moving fast (wind), but if you are climbing, it really doesn't seem to matter. But fleece is heavy for TD. Maybe a nano-puff-type jacket with a synthetic fill rather than down. Maybe someone else has experience with this. I tend to go for fleece because it's extremely durable---briars, branches, crashes. I also really like thicker polypro type gear. Capilene, Underarmour Cold Gear, some mil-surplus stuff. Might be good dual-purpose stuff for warmer days as a single layer.

4. Membranes. For TD, people seem reluctant to carry a lot.  But experiment with the idea of items that let wind through, like normal fleece and polypro and tech shirts, and contrast that with items that are wind and waterproof, like goretex, windstopper, and other "membrane" items. The problem, again, is 32F and raining. If you're sweating inside that shell, it's staying. So you need enough "airy thickness" that can be soaking wet and yet still keep you warm. You need to test it, because (a) everyone says their stuff is awesome, and yet (b) not everything is awesome.

4. Shock cooling. Shock cooling is an aviation term. It applies to cycling when you climb and get really hot, and then immediately descend while you're still sweaty and unzipped and *boom*, you've dropped your core temp. It seems like you need a strategy for this, especially in really bad conditions. At some point you need to realize, "I've gone over the edge, I need to warm up," and you need to have a plan to make that happen.

One final comment. I'm not a doctor. But I've read a lot about hypothermia. Warming up someone who is really cold has a few really scary issues. Probably the scariest is called "peripheral vasodilation." Say you see someone who is really cold, and their hands and feet are visibly cold. Q: What you do you? A:You ignore the hands and feet and you heat up their core, and only then do you worry about their hands and legs. The body has shut down blood flow to the arms and legs to prevent further core temperature loss. If you warm up the arms and legs, the blood vessels (the "peripheral" (arms and legs) blood vessels) vasodilate (open up) and dump cold blood into the core. **This is really bad**. It can cause drastic blood pressure drops and lead to fatal heart beat arrhythmia. Search "peripheral vasodilation" in this article: http://www.hypothermia.org/weinberg.htm  It's in there twice. Luckily, this is much less an issue for someone who is not severely hypothermic. But if you're not sure, and they're *really* cold, be careful.  And if you're a rider, don't let yourself get there. You could die. Have a plan.

Here's a story. When I was a kid, my grandmother would always say, "Put on a coat, or you'll catch a chill." I had heard that literally a hundred times, but nothing ever happened. Years later, I was in my twenties. I was alone at a house in the country. I wasn't feeling well. I was inside, 70F (21C), but I was cold. It wasn't even particularly cold out; probably it was freezing. I ran out to my car for a second, and can you guess what happened? Yes. I caught a chill. I got in bed under a ton of blankets, shivering, with my teeth chattering violently. I didn't warm up for an entire day. Now, admittedly, I was young and stupid. Today I would have made warm drinks and soup. I even keep an electric blanket now for when I have the flu. Now imagine being 40 miles from anything, in ice-cold rain, and having that happen to you.

Scroll down to the leaderboard and click "Projections".  Poof! You can also sort columns by clicking a column heading.

Thanks! That's pretty nice.

But I still kinda stand by my suggestion. I think it makes sense to have it on the rider's page in that little table. For me, the only other option is going to be to print out a little lookup table with the daily average v. time-to-complete.

I keep track with a spreadsheet, and I calculate "pace" a different way. (I'm probably going to change the calculation to this method.) I think it's really interesting to see the early pace changes (rapidly in the first few days), and then to see it settle in as the math becomes more and more rigid.

And on a different note: All the talk of cold cold rain and rain-snow-mix and hypothermia has had me stressed out all day (with me sitting here in air conditioned comfort with hot, humid weather outside). Be careful! Be tough! Make good decisions!

I have another suggestion for the trackleaders folks:

In the page for each rider (that you reach by clicking their name in the "all riders" view), you have a little table with a scroll bar. In that list are items like "current speed", "route mile", and "Route Distance per day".

Please add another field called something like "Pace", and calculate it as "Total length of the GPS line" divided by "Route Distance per day". The units for Pace are days. (It's an estimate of days-to-complete---the total number---it doesn't count down.)

Last year, the Total Length (of the GPS line) was something like 2859 miles, although Mike Hall's was 2867 for some reason. Maybe I got the 2859 from an early NB rider, and Mike's distance was different because of the Bursam Detour or the fire detour to Cuba. (I didn't notice it for finishers after MH).

funny lots of broken fork mounted H2O cages....it was my only failure that lead to two flats...maybe gonna try to avoid them this year...
Thanks Everyone, keep em coming!
Jefe

From the engineering standpoint, it's just a bad idea to mount water bottles on a suspension fork.

As others have said, the cages break and the water bottles are ejected. The story about a cage taking out spokes should be enough of a warning.

But there's more. The whole point of a designing a good suspension is "to reduce unsprung weight." "Sprung weight" is the part above the springs---the rider, the frame, the gear bags, and (I hope I can convince you) *the water*. The springs and dampers are designed so the sprung weight sort of floats along oblivious to the bumps. They do that by making the tires, wheels, and everything else "below" the springs bounce up-and-down like little bunny rabbits. It's a lot easier for those to bounce up and down separate from the floaty part if they are very light. Certainly, a lot of the equation is dialing in the various components and adjustments. And it's clear the TD is a lot of normal riding, so there is the argument that hanging extra weight off the fork is a reasonable compromise. But if you're compromising anyway, why not just go with a solid fork? If you're going to carry a suspension fork, then at least put the water on the bike so you can let it work like it's supposed to.

From twitter:

NWS El Paso ‏@NWSElPaso
We will see critical fire weather conditions both Mon and Tues, both days conditions include the #SilverFire #nmfire http://pic.twitter.com/9KhPZQoDHd

This is a neat link. It shows the fire-affected areas in CO and NM (and AZ and UT and CA). The link is for one specific spot, but if you zoom out you can see the others. As you zoom in it shows a drawn outline. I'm not sure what exactly the outline shows.

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3436/

This is a question for the trackleaders.com folks. When I'm looking at a rider's track points, and I click on them, it has data like this:

"Point #590 received at: 08:14:52 AM (MDT) 06/21/13 (1 hours, 31 minutes ago) (7:00:14 since start) 2.40 mi traveled at 14.4 mph"

Is it possible to add a "route mile" field to these trackpoints? I think it would help spectators very much.

The problem is riding on interstate is illegal.

I have no knowledge of the course designer's thinking on this, but I always assumed it was an accommodation for that piece of road because rural---Montana.

I really like the idea that the route uses a few miles of Interstate highway. If it is considered dangerous or something, then sure, but it seems like a short section of downhill, very rural road. How often does a biker get to ride on an Interstate?

Here's a dumb question: I just noticed that the route makes a loop in Butte, anyone know why?

Because the racers are on I-15 and that is the obvious place to exit.

Daniel is slowly riding along with a split off-sized tire hoping to make it to Helena today to get a new one.  His tire is holding together with duct tape and zip ties.  And incredibly enough was holding air quite nicely.

Do you have a photo of this? It sounds like it might be visually interesting.

Can you double click the main button to show the apps that are running, then hold down on the icon for the app you're using to get the red minus sign to kill it? And then reopen it?

As one of the legion of blue-dot-watchers, I'm really surprised at the the lack of visibility on google maps of the businesses, camping, and other things along the route. It's fairly easy to suggest edits in google maps or to even use google map maker to enter them yourself. If you have multiple people who can vouch for what "thing" is "where", you can get through the google vetting process pretty easily. (Google wants at least one person to agree that a change you've made or recommended is correct.)

It would help out riders for planning, it would help blue-dot-spectators, businesses along the route, and travellers-passing-through.